Odessa : Genius and death in a city of dreams
Odessa, cosmopolitisme, migration, King Charles
<div><b>Abstract from the publisher : </b></div>
</div>
A colorful account of the transformation of one of Europe's foremost Jewish cities, told through the stories of its geniuses and villains.<br />
<br />
Italian merchants, Greek freedom fighters, and Turkish seamen; a Russian empress and her favorite soldier-bureaucrats; Jewish tavern keepers, traders, and journalists—these and many others seeking fortune and adventure rubbed shoulders in Odessa, the greatest port on the Black Sea.<br />
<br />
Here a dream of cosmopolitan freedom inspired geniuses and innovators, from Alexander Pushkin and Isaac Babel to Zionist activist Vladimir Jabotinsky and immunologist Ilya Mechnikov. Yet here too was death on a staggering scale: not only the insidious plagues common to seaports but also the mass murder of Jews carried out by the Romanian occupation during World War II. Drawing on a wealth of original source material, Odessa is an elegy for the vibrant, multicultural tapestry of which a thriving Jewish population formed an essential part, as well as a celebration of the survival of Odessa's dream in a diaspora reaching all the way to Brighton Beach.</div>
</div>
<b>Charles King </b>is Professor of International Affairs and Government at Georgetown University and the author of four books on Eastern Europe.</div>
</div>
Charles King
W.W. Norton and Company
February 2011
336
Ouvrage
Modernity and the cities of the Jews. Quest. Issues in Contemporary Jewish History (No. 2)
modernity, modernité, twentieth century, vingtième siècle, Jewish, juif, histoire urbaine, Venice, Venise, Livorno, Livourne, Trieste, Odessa, Alexandria, Alexandrie, Vienna, Vienne, Budapest, Warsaw, Varsovie, New York, Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv-Jaffa, Minsk, Facchini Cristiana
<div><b>Extract from the introduction by Cristiana Facchini :<br /> </b></div> </div> First of all, our journey is meant to be a snapshot of Jewish culture through cities, but it also aims to depict a much more complicated picture of the interplay between modernity and Jewish culture. It tries to connect the perspective of time and the relevance of place in Jewish history, whilst underlining recurrent cultural patterns or significant differences amongst Jewish cultures of different periods and places. Both dimensions are relevant in order to better comprehend the response of Jews to the challenges brought about by the rise and spread of modernity. In doing so, we thought it might be enlightening to perform a sort of cultural pilgrimage through the cities that either are, or have been at some point, of great significance and relevance to the Jews.<br /> <br /> Why cities? Because cities tell stories. Their streets and architecture are like the convolutions of a nautilus shell, a natural history of the living cultures that produced them. If modern European history is inextricably linked to the history of its cities, modern European Jewish history may also be reconstructed through the cities where Jews have dwelt. <br /> <br /> The connection between cities and the Jewish people is deep and well documented. From ancient times, Jews found their way to the most important cities of the day. Even beyond the cities of the ancient Jewish commonwealth (the second Temple period), Jews concentrated themselves in important cultural centers of the Mediterranean world, such as Alexandria and Rome. Their contribution to the history of Western culture is well understood, although work remains to be done on a more diverse cultural geography through the early modern period. Jews disappeared from some cities, leaving feeble traces; others bear witness to their presence through the ages.</div> </div> <b>Contents of the Focus section:</b></div> </div> Cristiana Facchini - Modernity and the cities of the Jews</div> Cristiana Facchini - The city, the Ghetto and two books. Venice and Jewish early modernity</div> Francesca Bregoli - The port of Livorno and its </div> Tullia Catalan - The ambivalence of a port-city. The Jews of Trieste from the 19th to the 20th century</div> Joachim Schlör - Odessity: In search of transnational Odessa (or "Odessa the best city in the world: All about Odessa and a great many jokes")</div> Dario Miccoli - Moving histories. The Jews and modernity in Alexandria, 1881-1919</div> Albert Lichtblau - Ambivalent modernity: The Jewish population in Vienna</div> Konstantin Akinsha - Lunching under the Goya. Jewish collectors in Budapest at the beginning of the twentieth century</div> François Guesnet - Thinking globally, acting locally: Joel Wegmeister and modern Hasidic politics in Warsaw</div> Mark A. Raider - Stephen S. Wise and the urban frontier: American Jewish life in New York and the Pacific Northwest at the dawn of the 20th century</div> Ehud Manor - "A source of satisfaction to all Jews, wherever they may be living". Louis Miller between New York and Tel Aviv, 1911</div> Elissa Bemporad - Issues of gender, Sovietization and modernization in the Jewish metropolis of Minsk</div> Mario Tedeschini Lalli - Descent from paradise: Saul Steinberg's Italian years (1933-1941)</div> </div> <b>Cristiana Facchini </b>is Associate Professor in the Department of Historical Sciences, University of Bologna.</div> </div>
NC
Fondazione Centro di Documentazione Ebraica Contemporanea (CDEC)
October 2011
Revue
http://www.quest-cdecjournal.it/index.php?issue=2